Processing facilities are often managed using process control systems. Example processing facilities include manufacturing plants, chemical plants, crude oil refineries, and ore processing plants. Among other operations, process control systems typically manage the use of motors, valves, pumps, and other actuators or industrial equipment in the processing facilities.
Many industrial process control systems include multiple hierarchical layers that perform different functions. For example, lower layers could include devices that perform advanced process control (APC) and optimization operations, while higher layers could include devices that perform planning and/or scheduling operations. Unfortunately, different hierarchical layers often include different types of models and use different constraints on an industrial process. It is therefore often not easy (and sometimes extremely difficult) to keep models and constraints consistent between different layers of an industrial process control system. Inconsistent models or constraints can often prevent an optimal control solution from being implemented in a processing facility. This can have various disadvantages, including monetary losses.